Particles such as smoke particles are often generated during surgical procedures. Heat can be generated, for example when electrical current is passed through tissue for cutting, when friction cutting is employed, where intense light such as light generated by lasers is used, or any technique which uses large amounts of energy.
Smoke particles generated in this way obscure the view of a surgeon when operating and may be hazardous. Development of smoke removal methods when conventional surgery is used has concentrated on removing the smoke by means of a vacuum and then either venting the smoke externally of the operating theatre and/or filtering out the smoke particles. When laparoscopic procedures are carried out, gas is introduced into the patient via access ports to inflate the area of the patient's body that is of interest. Smoke generated in the insufflated area, for example when diathermic or electrocautery cutting is undertaken, is sucked out and may then be filtered. The smoke particles should be filtered out but often, in practice, they are not. Filters for such vacuum smoke removal are expensive. Often the smoke is left to permeate into the operating theatre in many procedures.
Even when cryosurgery is employed, frozen vapour, droplets, or matter can be generated like fog, which is suspended in the local atmosphere. This fog too is intended to be encompassed by the term ‘particles’ in this specification. The fog too can obscure the surgeon's view.
The inventor has realised that a different approach to suspended particle reduction or removal is required and embodiments of the invention address the problems mentioned above.